Silent As The Grave
by Little Miss Molly
Summary: TUE-based, implied rape. We see what happens to Valerie ten years from now, even Kwan. What about Paulina?


**Title: **Silent As The Grave  
**Author: **Post Preemptive Pandora  
**Disclaimer: **all characters are copyright Butch Hartman  
**Summary: **We see what happens to Valerie ten years from now, even Kwan. What about Paulina?  
**Rating: **T  
**Notes:**  
My first fanfic in the phandom, oh boy...that's always a killer. I don't feel very comfortable in this sub-category just yet. ;-; Be gentle with me, darlings.  
Anyway. Err. This is 'The Ultimate Enemy' based. Takes place before (like, directly before) the opening scene. I was just thinking, we see what happened to Valerie, and briefly what happened to Kwan. But why isn't anyone else shown? We see Kwan for a total of like...three seconds. Would it _really_ have been that hard to let us glimpse Dash, or Paulina, or any other secondary characters who weren't canonically declared dead? Eh?  
Someone already did one of these for Dash, so I left him alone. Not that I'm going by that, mind you, I have my own theories about Dash's fate. He just doesn't interest me that much. Paulina, however...destroy all the good in Danny, and exactly what kind of feelings would he have toward her? There was always the physical attraction, obviously apretty strong one. She was a pretty girl Danny wanted, for a while at least, to be with. Strip all the morals away from that...and what do you get?

* * *

Amity Park Psychiatric Hospital wasn't a bad place. The building was well kept, its white walls pristine, the beds tidy, the windows sparkling. The number of in-patients wasn't especially high, so there was plenty of room. The doctors and nurses were kind enough. It was a nice place to live; a _good_ place.

This was what Valerie Grey repeated to herself, over and over, every time she walked down these spotless halls.

She'd been here so often, she knew her way around with her eyes closed. The people at the front just handed her the key these days, never bothering to accompany her any more. Or rather, that _was_ the case. For today, she had a guard with her. Today, _he_ was holding the key. And when she'd asked to be alone, she'd been told it was "for your own safety."

"She's been getting worked-up into a frenzy a lot as of late," the doctor at the front desk had explained. He was old and balding, a fact he tried to hide with a badly done comb-over. "We've had to sedate her twice already this week."

_You people and your damned sedatives! _Valerie glared at the guard's heavy form striding in front of her. She didn't like this at all. She was the one who defended Amity Park, these days. They knew this. She protected _them_, and they thought _she_ needed protection? With a light scoff, she pushed her way past her "guide", and continued walking; he didn't object.

The door they sought was at the back of the ward, room 999. Valerie noted that the guard was still tailing her the entire way. When she reached for the door, he stepped a little too close. She turned her head to face him, her lips set in a frown. "Do you _mind_?"

"I've been told to accompany you," he said, brusquely, "every moment you're in her presence. She could be dangerous."

_Dangerous_! Valerie wanted to laugh. They seriously thought this small, broken, emaciated girl was _dangerous_? Especially to _her_! Were they planning to sedate the girl while she was there, too? Make her even _more _distant? Valerie's crude amusement dissolved into anger; her gaze fell on the guard, and her voice dropped to a low, dangerous sound.

"Excuse me," she snarled, green eyes narrowed in a death glare, "but if I can protect this _fucking_ city, I think I can handle my own friend."

_Well, once a friend..._

The guard hesitated. For a minute, Valerie thought he was going to exert his authority and _force_ his way into the room. But instead, he relented. The key was pressed into her hand. "Call if you need assistance." And he left. Finally alone, Valerie turned the key in the lock, and pushed open the heavy metal door.

"Hey, Paulina."

Only Paulina could make a hospital gown and unkempt appearance look beautiful. The girl was sitting on her bed, face partially hidden behind her dark, scraggly hair. She looked slightly pale. She looked up slightly when Valerie entered the room, but gave no verbal reply. This was expected. After all, Paulina hadn't said a word in almost ten years.

"Sorry Kwan can't be here today," Valerie continued, as though Paulina had replied with a cheerful 'how-dee-do' in a normal fashion, "he was tied-up with work at the lab. He said he'd try to drop by later, but if he can't, he says hello." The Hispanic girl just stared blankly. Ten years ago, the silence had disturbed Valerie, and their visits were brief and awkward, usually ending with the darker girl racing from the hospital. But now, it felt almost normal. She would talk, Paulina would stare, and there was a mutual understanding between them. Their own special, one-sided language.

"I brought you a few magazines." She opened the messenger bag at her side, removing the items and setting them on the table, "all your favorites. I thought you might want to keep up with the latest fashions and all. Not that it's anything to get really excited about, in my opinion." Internally, Valerie imagined Paulina as she was ten years ago, making a snide remark about her current "look": buzz-cut and jumpsuited. The fantasy made her smile; and at the same time, she wanted to cry. "So...anything new with you, Paulina?"

In reply, Paulina held out her left arm, plainly displaying the track marks from recent injections. Valerie grimaced. _Sedatives..._

"Yeah, they told me about that," she said, guiding Paulina's arm back down to her lap, careful not to touch the bruises left by the needles. "They told me you've been getting upset a lot lately, Paulina." She put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Any particular reason why? Anything—"

Paulina's head snapped upward.

The movement was so sudden, and so unexpected, that Valerie jumped back. It was rare that Paulina reacted so strongly to conversation, and then only ever on the subject of _him_. The gears turned in the ghost hunter's head. Was that what this was all about, then? Did _he_ have something to do with her mood swings? "Paulina, is...is it _him_?"

Paulina looked at her, turquoise eyes wide and scared, and Valerie was struck suddenly by the memory of that night, opening the door to her apartment building to find her former friend on her threshold: bruised and bleeding, naked and defiled, broken and insane, only one word on her lips, a name, _his _name, repeated endlessly for hours upon hours before fading into silence. She never said a word after that. Not to the police, not to her parents, not to Star, not to Kwan, not to the doctors, and certainly not to Valerie. Never to _Valerie_.

So when a sound began to slip past the woman's lips, it took Valerie a moment to register exactly what was happening:

Paulina was _talking_.

At first, all the noise she could make was a garbled wheezing, incoherent save for a few jumbled syllables. And when finally she managed to gasp, "_don't go,_" her voice was hoarse and cracked, ruined from a decade's lack of use. But it was her voice; it was Paulina's voice. And to Valerie, the sound was like a ghost rised from the grave.

"My God, Paulina—"

"Don't go!" There were hands fisted in Valerie's jumpsuit now, dragging her down from her standing position; their noses were almost touching. "He's here! He's coming, he can get in! He'll kill you, he'll kill all of us!" Paulina buried her face in Valerie's chest, her breathing hard and shaky; tears soaked the red material. "_Danny_…"

And the silence swallowed her again.

For a time, Valerie could only squat there, halfway between standing and sitting, her arms dangling limp at her sides. It was unreal—the sound of Paulina's voice, however warped by madness. It brought back memories Valerie had long since tried to suppress. Memories of a time when life was simple, before the Nasty Burger exploded; _hell_, before her father lost his job, before she became a ghost hunter. When she was just Valerie Grey, and Paulina, however shallow their relationship, was considered her _friend_. Slowly, her arms rose, and Paulina was pulled closer to her in a warm embrace. Valerie could feel her tembling in her arms. It made her realize how long it had been since she'd hugged someone.

"Don't worry, Paulina," she soothed. "Danny's not here. He can't get through the shield. You're safe now."

But still, the girl was shaking. She was scared; scared enough to break her decade-long silence. And the urgency in her voice was un-nerving. Even as Valerie helped Paulina back to her bed, laying her down to rest, the words seemed to repeat all around the room—or was it merely in her head? All the time in this place, the doctors said, patients would garble nonesense. Prophecies, predictions, conspiracy theories: all rubbish, they assured her. But was that all Paulina had said—rubbish? After being silent for ten years?

_Maybe_, she thought an hour later, as she signed-out at the front desk, _I should take Paulina's warning seriously._

Outside, Valerie lifted her comm.. watch to her face, pressing the button for an open connection. "Daddy, I'm going to check-out the Ghost Shield, okay?" she paused, contemplating what to say to make herself sound less suspicious. "You know, a random check…make sure everything's working okay." For a moment there was static, before the familiar image of her father's face greeted her on the screen.

"Alright, Sweetie, just get home safe." Mr. Grey frowned a little. "Any particular reason?"

"…no." Valerie sighed, mounting her rocket board. "Just a little voice."


End file.
